Quick Shots: Proposal to separate private and public schools is wrong idea

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Rockford Register Star

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Posted Jun. 28, 2014 at 12:37 PM
Updated Jun 28, 2014 at 2:30 PM

Posted Jun. 28, 2014 at 12:37 PM
Updated Jun 28, 2014 at 2:30 PM

Private schools belong in IHSA

When I first heard the IHSA compromise that would move repeat private-school state finalists up another class, but remove the 1.65 attendance multiplier from 90 percent (or more) of private and magnet school teams, I wrote this could create enough outrage to make the public schools secede from private schools.

Well, someone is trying to do exactly that.

Addison Trail principal Adam Cibulka told the Moline Dispatch that the 14-team West Suburban Conference voted unanimously to draft an IHSA proposal to hold separate state tournament series for public and private schools, the way Wisconsin did before 2000. Such attempts have been voted down in the past and IHSA executive director Marty Hickman hopes this one will also fail.

“I would hate to see a separation between our public and private schools,” Hickman said in a statement, adding the IHSA has thrived for decades with the two together. “I personally do not believe that has to change now,” he said.

The ironic part is that all 14 West Suburban schools are among the largest 93 schools in the state. Eight have enrollments above 2,500. Private schools, both in Illinois and around the nation, are far more dominant in the middle-sized classes, where Big Northern teams have often run into the likes of Aurora Christian, Chicago Hales Franciscan, Chicago Leo and Addison Driscoll (now closed).

It’s not a state tournament without the whole state. The 1.65 multiplier and new success formula for repeat state finalists are great levelers. Just drop the waivers and crack down on transfers for both public and private schools and everyone should have a fair playing field.

Fixing regional tournament seeds

Not all proposed IHSA news is controversial. Local coaches, who often saw three or four 20-win teams bunched in the same basketball, softball or baseball regional and no other 20-win teams in the entire sectional, complained about this for years. Now coaches around the state are complaining and the IHSA appointed a committee to look at going back to seeding the entire sectional, as it did before it moved to strictly geographic assignments a decade ago in a response to skyrocketing gas prices.